Dracula Movie Critique – Besson’s Love-Struck Reinterpretation of the Classic Horror Story is Ridiculous but Entertaining

Maybe interest is limited for a fresh take of Dracula from Luc Besson, the celebrated French director for stylish excess. And yet, it’s worth noting: his lavishly upholstered vampire romance has ambition and panache – and amid its theatrical camp, I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer over Eggers’s dignified recent take of Nosferatu. A few strange elements appear, such as a scene that appears to show a geographic divide between France and Romania.

The Veteran Actor as a Humorously Exhausted Priest Tracking the Undead

Christoph Waltz embodies a clever but beleaguered vampire-hunting priest – it’s surprising he never took on this character previously – who arrives in Paris in 1889 for the French Revolution centenary celebrations. The same goes for the malevolent vampire count, played by the body-horror veteran Caleb Landry Jones using a distorted Eastern European tone evoking the voice of Gru by Steve Carell in the Despicable Me films. This character suits him perfectly.

The Story: A Chronicle of Longing

Here’s the premise: the vampire lord has traveled ceaselessly the earth in torment for hundreds of years after his transformation into a vampire, a penalty due to his blasphemous mourning following the loss of his beloved Elisabeta (an inaugural screen appearance for Zoë Bleu, Rosanna Arquette’s child). Dracula has sought relentlessly for a female who would be the rebirth of his deceased partner. As ill fortune would have it, the fortunate female is revealed as Mina (again played by Bleu), the demure fiancee of Dracula’s wimpish land agent, Jonathan Harker (Ewens Abid), who just traveled to the count’s castle to discuss his property portfolio and the tiny painting of the winsome Mina caught the count’s hooded eye.

Besson’s Handling and Lighthearted Touch

Besson organizes Dracula’s second-act backstory of worldwide travels sporting extravagant attire confidently, and he is not above providing humorous scenes with a distinctly Mel Brooks flavour – such as the vampire’s constant unsuccessful tries to commit suicide post-Elisabeta’s demise, along with farcical scenes that result after Dracula sprays himself in a certain perfume during the 1700s in Florence, which causes him to be irresistible to women. Outlandish but entertaining.

Dracula is on digital platforms from 1 December and in disc format starting the twenty-second of December. It screens in Australian cinemas from 5 February 2026.